The Benghazi Bungler

[Flanders]

Joe Biden has to be singing this one today:

Crew Cuts - Mostly Martha - YouTube

I wonder if Biden would have performed his five acts of vaudeville had Martha Raddatz played it square:

Martha Raddatz was an awful moderator – pretty much everything conservatives might have feared, after learning at a late hour of her undisclosed personal relationship with Barack Obama. She interrupted Paul Ryan constantly, openly argued with him, and presented Democratic talking points better than Biden did. If a Fox News anchor who once entertained Mitt Romney at her wedding had treated Biden that way, the left wing of the Internet would be burning down tonight.

Angry Joe and Martha vs. that nice Ryan fellow from Accounting
By: John Hayward
10/11/2012 11:43 PM

Veep debate: Angry Joe and Martha vs. that nice Ryan fellow from Accounting - Conservative News

Considering Raddatz’s performance conservatives have to wonder if Hussein is singing this one to Candy Crowley:

Johnny Mercer and Jo Stafford Candy 1944 RDoyle Remaster 2012 - YouTube

Jocularity aside, an avalanche is going to bury Hussein on November 6. With 25 days remaining until election day the media cannot stop it; nevertheless, the MSM is going to devote 99 percent of its coverage to a lost presidential race; so it is up to conservatives, Tea Parties, and concerned independents to stress the importance of winning every Senate seat. Tea Parties must concentrate on setting off a Senate landslide. Everyone who understands getting rid of Hussein is not enough to turn this country around has a mere four weeks to get the Senate message out on the Internet.

Should the Democrats keep 45 to 49 Senate seats they will retain plenty of clout in confirmation hearings. Why is it important to neuter Democrats long enough to get some decent people confirmed? The answer is in the people Hussein & Company confirmed; often with RINO support. Here’s the cream of Hussein’s crop: Kagan, Sotomayor, Susan Rice, Eric Holder, Leon E. Panetta, Janet Napolitano, Hilda L. Solis, Kathleen Sebelius, Steven Chu, Arne Duncan, Timothy F. Geithner, and leave us not forget the Benghazi Bungler, Hillary Clinton.

Benghazi attack may cloud Clinton’s legacy
By Anne Gearan, Published: October 9 The Washington Post

Benghazi attack may mar Clinton’s legacy - The Washington Post

Need I say more?

 

[Flanders]

The Intelligence community was blamed for the attacks on 9-11-2001. In fact, after 9-11-2001 every intelligence agency was put under one umbrella controlled by one man, the National Director of Intelligence. It was a bad idea then, and it’s a bad idea now. That’s why I’m surprised Hussein would blame the intelligence community after the Democrats got everything they lusted after for decades —— control of every intelligence agency for political purposes. If Democrats had that control during the Cold War the Soviet Union would still be terrorizing the world.

Initially, Susan Rice blamed 9-11-2012 on intelligence community failures when her 5-talk-shows misinformation campaign about a video no one saw backfired. As recently as last Thursday night Joe Biden blamed the Benghazi murders on the intelligence community.

Let’s go back to the blame for 9-11-2001. It belongs on the Clintons; notably Jamie Gorelick’s infamous memo:

As Deputy Attorney General under Bill Clinton from 1994 to 1997 Gorelick wrote the memo that created the now infamous “Gorelick Wall.” A 1995 memo she wrote, stated explicitly that they would “go beyond what is legally required, [to] prevent any risk of creating an unwarranted appearance that FISA is being used to avoid procedural safeguards which would apply in a criminal investigation.” These rules were, shortly after their creation, expanded to regulate such communications in future counter-terrorism investigations. It set a procedure where various intelligence operations such as the FBI and CIA could not share information with each other.

Jamie Gorelick’s “wall” barred anti-terror investigators from accessing the computer of Zacarias Moussaoui, the 20th hijacker, already in custody on an immigration violation shortly before 9/11.

At the time, an enraged FBI investigator wrote a prophetic memo to headquarters about the wall

‘Whatever has happened to this — someday someone will die — and wall or not — the public will not understand why we were not more effective in throwing every resource we had at certain problems…..especially since the biggest threat to us UBL [Usama bin Laden], is getting the most protection.​

Jamie Gorelick’s Incompetence Helped Cause 9/11 AND the Housing Collapse” Why is She on Obama’s Short List for FBI Director ?
by Jeff Dunetz
Posted on March 25 2011 5:30 pm

Jamie Gorelick’s Incompetence Helped Cause 9/11 AND the Housing Collapse” Why is She on Obama’s Short List for FBI Director ? | NewsReal Blog

Rather than rake up intelligence community coals and Gorelick’s Wall, Hillary decided to throw Rice and Hussein to the wolves in an effort to keep her presidential hopes alive:

State Department sources have said that Clinton has never forgotten that Rice, who served in her husband Bill's administration, was an early supporter of Obama. Rice has ambitions to take over from Clinton if Obama is re-elected but the Benghazi debacle could scupper her chances.

In a briefing on Tuesday, State Department officials said 'others' in the executive branch concluded initially that the attack was part of a protest against the film, which ridiculed the Prophet Muhammad. That was never the State Department's conclusion, reporters were told.

Hillary Clinton reveals what REALLY led to Benghazi massacre - and demolishes White House claim it was triggered by anti-Islam film
By Toby Harnden In Washington
PUBLISHED: 22:24 EST, 9 October 2012 | UPDATED: 13:34 EST, 10 October 2012

Death of U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens revealed: AK-47s, grenade attacks, and a smoke-filled safe-room | Mail Online

The silver lining:

Both Clinton and Rice are finished.

 

[waltky]

The buck stops here...

Clinton: 'I take responsibility' for Benghazi
October 15th, 2012 - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the bucks stops with her when it comes to who is blame for a deadly assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi.

"I take responsibility" for what happened on September 11, Clinton said in an interview with CNN's Elise Labott soon after arriving in Lima, Peru for a visit. The interview, one of a series given to U.S. television networks Monday night, were the first she has given about the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. Clinton insisted President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are not involved in security decisions, Clinton said. "I want to avoid some kind of political gotcha," she added, noting that it is close to the election.

The attack killed Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans at the consulate. The Obama administration has been heavily criticized after Vice President Joe Biden said during last week's vice presidential debate that the White House did not know of requests to enhance security at Benghazi, contradicting testimony by State Department employees that requests had been made and rejected. Following the debate, the White House said the vice president did not know of the requests because they were handled, as is the practice, by the State Department.

Clinton also sought to downplay the criticism that administration officials continued to say the attack was a spontaneous product of a protest over an anti-Muslim film, a theory that has since been discarded. In the wake of an attack, there is always "confusion," Clinton said. But the information has since changed, Clinton said in the interview. The secretary of state also described the desperate scene in the State Department during the hours of the attack on the night of September 10. It was an "intense, long ordeal" as staff tried to find out what had happened. Clinton said her mission now is to make sure such an attack will never happen again - but also that diplomacy, even in dangerous areas like Benghazi, is not stopped. "We can't not engage," she said. "We cannot retreat."

Source

See also:

When Did Obama First Meet with NSC After Benghazi? WH Isn't Saying
October 15, 2012 – The White House isn't saying when President Barack Obama first met with his National Security Council to discuss the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya that killed four Americans, including U.S. Amb. Chris Stevens.

On Monday, CNSNews.com asked the White House: “‘At what hour on what day did President Obama first meet with the National Security Council to discuss what had happened in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012?” The NSC is chaired by the president, and includes Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin Dempsey, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. A NSC meeting would allow the leader of the intelligence community to communicate directly with the leader of the State Department in the presence of the president and for all of them to weigh any conflicting information.

On Monday morning, CNSNews.com called the White House, which asked for the question to be e-mailed. CNSNews.com then e-mailed the question at 9:01 a.m. At 10:36 a.m., Bernadette Meehan, director of media outreach and assistant press secretary for the National Security Staff at the White House, responded by e-mail, “Jay will be ready to respond to this in the gaggle today,” referring to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, who was at the Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, Va., where the president is preparing for the second presidential debate. According to the official White House transcript of the press gaggle that began at 10:47 a.m. and ended at 11:19 a.m., the subject of Benghazi never came up. The questions that reported did ask were mostly about the presidential campaign and Tuesday's debate between Obama and his Republican opponent Mitt Romney at Hoffstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.

CNSNews.com followed up with Meehan, explaining that the question of when the president first met with the NSC about Benghazi did not come up and asking for a White House response to the question. Meehan did not respond. After the Benghazi attack on Sept. 11 this year--the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon--Obama administration officials suggested it spontaneously grew out of a protest against a YouTube video.

However, last week, State Department officials testified to Congress that the department never concluded the Benghazi attack resulted from the YouTube video. In a Fox News Sunday interview, Obama campaign senior advisor David Axelrod did not give a direct answer when asked how soon President Barack Obama met with the NSC after the Benghazi attack. During the interview, Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace asked about the testimony last week from Charlene Lamb, deputy assistant secretary for international programs with the bureau of diplomatic security for the State Department.

MORE

 

[Flanders]

The buck stops here...

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are not involved in security decisions, Clinton said.

Clinton said her mission now is to make sure such an attack will never happen again - but also that diplomacy, even in dangerous areas like Benghazi, is not stopped. "We can't not engage," she said. "We cannot retreat."

To waltky: The buck stops here means nothing coming from one of the architects of the massacre in Waco, Texas. Were she sincere about Benghazi she would resign. She did not even fire Susan Rice who lied through her teeth from the start.

Incidentally, Janet Reno said “The buck stops with me.” after the Clinton Administration slaughtered over 80 Americans in the Branch Davidian Compound. Reno kept her job and that was the end of it.

Bottom line: “The buck stops here” has become a meaningless sop designed to shush public outrage. Today, it is a guarantied pardon for leading Democrats who are drenched in American blood. Not only in getting American soldiers killed in foreign lands by giving aid and comfort to the enemy as they did in Vietnam, Iraq, and now Afghanistan, but by being responsible for the deaths of American civilians.

For a liar like Clinton to insist:

. . . President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are not involved in security decisions, . . .

would be laughed out of town if whitewashing their part in the murders of four Americans was not the reason for the lie.

A liar defending liars is a farce. Hell, Biden is an admitted liar. This Administration has lied about everything from day one; so why would anybody believe anything Clinton says? Do the spinmeisters really think the American people are suddenly going to believe an accomplished liar like Hillary Clinton because dead Americans are involved? To top Democrats getting Americans killed is all the more reason to lie.

Here’s the hook:

Clinton said her mission now is to make sure such an attack will never happen again - but also that diplomacy, even in dangerous areas like Benghazi, is not stopped. "We can't not engage," she said. "We cannot retreat."

Some might conclude that defending the failed Arab Spring is the primary reason for Clinton’s comment. Justifying that failed policy is a smokescreen at best. Clinton is talking about not retreating from the New World Order’s global government agenda. In Clinton-speak Victoria’s pronoun means justifying her ambition. “WE” sure as hell isn’t speaking for me, or for a majority of Americans.

Finally, it is nothing more than arrogance for Clinton to imply that diplomacy will be stopped when the Socialist worldview is finally discredited and discarded. Even if her worst nightmare comes true —— shutting down the United Nations —— diplomacy will thrive in another form; one more beneficial to the American people.

 

[Flanders]

Quote #4 permalink

The buck stops here means nothing coming from one of the architects of the massacre in Waco, Texas. Were she sincere about Benghazi she would resign. She did not even fire Susan Rice who lied through her teeth from the start.

Incidentally, Janet Reno said “The buck stops with me.” after the Clinton Administration slaughtered over 80 Americans in the Branch Davidian Compound. Reno kept her job and that was the end of it.

Jack Cashill offers a nice clarification on “blame-sharing” in the aftermath of the Waco Massacre:

More than a few pundits have compared Hillary Clinton’s halfhearted claim of responsibility for embassy security – or insecurity, as it happened – to former Attorney General Janet Reno’s seeming stand-up act following the April 19, 1993, Waco disaster.

Few pundits, though, know why Janet Reno kept her job through this flaming fiasco. Even the conservatives who have been comparing Hillary’s gambit to Reno’s don’t seem to know the back story. They should.

“I made the decision,” Reno said at a news conference after an ungodly FBI tank assault left 74 dead at the Mount Carmel community in Waco, Texas. “I’m accountable. The buck stops with me.”

During the siege, and immediately afterwards, Bill Clinton proved to be as craven a buck passer as Obama has been post-Benghazi.

“I was aware of it. I think the attorney general made the decision,” Clinton told the media while the compound burned. “I knew it was going to be done, but the decisions were entirely theirs.”

When Clinton saw the laurels being tossed Reno’s way, however, he turned credit monger and fought for his share of the limelight.

Yes, Virginia, there was limelight to be had. What may seem incredible, at least to those who take the media seriously, is that Reno’s approval ratings went up after the debacle.

Hillary's Janet Reno imitation
Exclusive: Jack Cashill explains why AG's 'buck stops here' gambit worked in '93
Published: 11 hours ago
by JACK CASHILL

Hillary’s Janet Reno imitation

NOTE: Cashill puts the dead at 74. I never could find an official total. Most often the number is put in the low 80s.